Dangal Friday (Day 1) Box Office Collection Update

Update: Dangal has collected Rs 29.78 crore on Day 1 at the box office.

Aamir Khan’s Dangal has taken the second best opening of 2016, only behind Salman Khan’s Sultan which took a earth-shattering opening during Eid this year.

It’s not a pan-India opening, as the occupancy for the morning shows on Friday ranges from average (below MS Dhoni: The Untold Story at some centres) to matching Sultan at some others. Business at most theatres is somewhere in between, with ticket priced higher than Sultan.

It seems to be a case of the film taking a bigger opening at bigger centres and the reason for this could be the overwhelmingly positive reviews and pre-release reports. It could also be because of the impact of demonetisation at smaller towns and cities.

At smaller centres, the opening is not upto ‘festive release’ expectations, but given the fact that the film does not look like an out-and-out commercial release (much like Chak De India back in 2007), the opening can be termed as very good to excellent.

The level of opening in the morning suggests that the film is heading towards a 26-28 crore opening day total, which could vary by more than 10% if the film manages to show growth at smaller centres evening onwards.

The reports coming in from theatres is good, so the film could show big growth in business on Saturday and peak on Sunday when the family audience come out in big numbers.

Sultan collected Rs 36.54 crore on its opening day, which was a partial holiday for Eid. Dhoom 3 remains the biggest non-holiday opener of all-time, as the film – including collections from all versions – managed to record 36.22 crore on Day 1. Unless there is a massive turnaround in the evening and night, both of these records will remain safe.

The highest single-day collections of 2016 is Sultan’s 38.21 crore. If Dangal can get closer to the 30 crore mark by the end of today and the film manages to find universal acceptance, it could breach the 40 crore mark on Sunday.

Dangal has no competition at the box office for the next 3 weeks. The next major release is ‘Ok Jaanu’ but as far as the non-metro centres are concerned, it has about 5 weeks before the release of Raees and Kaabil. For now, it’s about finding acceptance and getting those repeat-viewers, both of which is crucial if Dangal has to become the fourth film to cross the 300 crore mark – more so since the film will be missing out on two extra holidays for Christmas and New Year, both of which, unfortunately, happen to fall on Sunday this year.